SA History Online website hacked

South African History Online‚ a digital archive that was around even before online encyclopaedia Wikipedia‚ was hacked last Thursday.

South African documentary photographer‚ political and cultural activist‚ and founder of South African History Online‚ Omar Badsha‚ on Monday told TimesLIVE that the site simply disappeared.

“We checked with our colleagues and service providers and were informed that the site was hacked‚” he said.

While the site receives “a lot of hate mail“‚ Badsha believes the hack was a random act.

“We normally get a lot of hate mail because people don’t agree with some of the things that are posted. But we have had this before and the last time we were hacked‚ we found out that it came from somewhere in Eastern Europe.”

It took about two days for the website to be restored.

The site has close to 40 000 documents‚ about 7 000 biographies‚ and an archive containing tens of thousands of letters‚ statutes‚ photos‚ and speeches.

Badsha started the website in 2001 to address the bias in South Africa history and the way it was presented in textbooks and academic institutions.

“We created a site that we call the people’s history because it allows for people to access information on South African history but also to contribute.” –